What is missing in churches today? Where is the unseen hole? Simply put, we are missing true gospel centered discipleship. Without discipleship the church can still have an outward attraction and all the looks of activity but they will be empty and meaningless because in the end it will not take you to any meaningful place spiritually. Discipleship is the engine of the church and if we want our churches to grow in a meaningful gospel centered way then we must focus our attention on this core aspect of church life.
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Sermon notes:
If the contemporary church were a ship it would no doubt be a modern cruise ship with the finest restaurants and entertainment. I would boast many decks filled with fun activities for her guests, luxurious staterooms, and guest services that meet your every whim. Yes, it would be a magnificent sight that would attract many.
It would be tall and long with a wide berth and yet there would be something missing. It would have no engine, or at least if it did have an engine it would be far underpowered and equipped to safely propell the massive ship.
The truth is that people don’t go on cruises because they have researched the sea worthiness of the vessel and know that the engine is quite powerful enough to get them through any storm, and that it is regularly maintained and fully functioning. No, people go on cruises because of the promise of free food, fun activities, and a chance to indulge themselves with few limitations.
Sadly many churches have begun to take on a cruise ship esque spirit about themselves. Too many churches today are driving not by the engine of the gospel of Jesus Christ but by anything and everything else. All that can be seen is invested in heavily, and all that is unseen is abandoned because it would help you to get more feet across your gangplank.
In order to find out practically what discipleship looks like I want to turn your attention to the example of the Apostle Paul in the church in Ephesus. In our text today we see one of the clearest descriptions of a discipleship ministry. So let’s let God’s Word inform us and instruct us about how we should disciple.
In this text we read about Paul’s second visit to Ephesus. Not long before, in chapter 19, we read how he lived with them for 3 years. During these 3 years, he diligently served them through the teaching of the Word and the preaching of the Gospel. Then he went on to Greece, where he spent several months. Finally he decided to return to Jerusalem and on the way he wanted to stop by Ephesus to meet their elders one last time before going to Jerusalem.
[Act 20:17-38 NIV]
17 From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. 18 When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. 22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. 25 “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. 32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. 35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” 36 When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. 37 They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. 38 What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.
This text gives us a living example of what Paul’s discipleship looked like. We also see the negative side of what happens when there is no discipleship and when there is false teaching. Paul warns that there will be fierce wolves who will not spare the flock.
Without biblical, faithful, and prolonged discipleship, the church sooner or later enters a fog of obscurity when it comes to Biblical truth. In this dangerous fog she can easily lose her bearings and cease to see Christ in front her. Without a clear direction and without Christ at the head she loses her gospel passion and desire to continue forward.
The consequences of a lack of discipleship are very serious, although sometimes they are not immediately obvious. Often churches continue to move forward by inertia alone. It can be seen that in Ephesus Paul was very worried about this. But the church cannot coast along for many years, sooner or later the inertia ends and then what will happen?
When the church comes to the end of its gospel inertia we will inevitably see certain steps that lead the church away from the gospel itself and from Christ. It happens slowly and imperceptibly at first but it does happen.
- The departure of sound Bible teaching and the emergence of motivational sermons, popular philosophy, superficial teachings, and minor doctrines in its place.
- The vanishing of personal discipleship among church members. The church becomes nothing more than a comfortable place to meet with friends.
- The sermon loses its central place in worship. Instead of it, various entertainment elements, music, theater, and anything else, just not the preaching of God’s Word.
- Withdrawal of personal and public evangelism and appeals to repentance
- Compromises in core doctrine.
- Acceptance of non-biblical doctrine.
- The fall of biblical morality and the justification of different types of sin.
Ignoring the importance of discipleship and biblical teaching is a slippery and dangerous descent from God’s word and from Christ.
Paul describes this fall also in 1 Tim when he writes to young Timothy, who was a pastor in Ephesus.
[1Ti 1:3-6 NIV] 3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer 4 or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work–which is by faith. 5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk.
We can say that 1 and 2 Timothy are commentaries on Acts 20.17-36
A little further we see the result of a failure in biblical discipleship.
[1Ti 1:7, 19-20 NIV] 7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. … 19 holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. 20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.
There are two reasons for shipwrecks: one is a navigation error, the other is a mechanical error. Paul tells young Timothy that there are also two reasons why people are shipwrecked by faith: The first is doctrinal error, and the second is moral failure.
Unfaithfulness to Christ in teaching always produces unfaithfulness to Christ in conduct. And we can also say the opposite!
As we persist in unbiblical behavior, sooner or later we will change our teaching so that it does not condemn, but justifies our sin.
Therefore, when we talk about discipleship, we mean both.
Biblical discipleship is the combination of teaching and behavior, practice and doctrine.
One should not be without the other. We can know all doctrines, all catechism, all theological terms, but if our life does not conform to these doctrines, we cannot be faithful to Christ and we will be shipwrecked by faith.
Paul also encourages Timothy to maintain a clear conscience and strive for righteousness, exercise yourself in godliness. These are not empty words, Paul was an example of faithfulness to Timothy. He writes in Acts 20.26 “That I am clean of the blood of all”
In order that we do not depart from Christ and remain faithful to Him and His Word, we must participate in the process of discipleship.
Let’s look at a few characteristics of biblical discipleship from the life of the Apostle Paul in Acts 20.17-32
1. Biblical discipleship requires presence
18 When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia.
In the context of quarantine we especially need these verses. Personal physical presence is vital to Biblical discipleship.
- Only when we are together can we know each other
- Why did God decide to send his Son to us? His presence was important.
- Through personal contact we become real people.
- There are no Christian stars in discipleship.
- One big problem is that teaching in the church never reaches down into our daily personal life.
- We stand far from the preacher and nod our heads, he does not know what happened this morning, he does not know what you are fighting, he does not know your personal life.
- This is not criticism of the preacher, we need these sermons! We also need the personal presence of our brothers and sisters in our lives.
- Paul publicly and personally discipled at Ephesus
- [Act 20:20 NIV] 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house.
- This group of elders was a narrow circle of people with whom Paul spent more time personally.
2. Biblical discipleship requires teaching
While it may seem obvious, we must mention it. Teaching is central to the church, mission, evangelism, and ministry.
It’s amazing how much Paul talks about doctrine in this little epistle to the elders in Ephesians.
20.20 “I did not hesitate to preach … I taught house to house
20.21 I declared .. repentance
20.27 To proclaim to you the whole will of God
20.31 I never stopped warning you
He speaks of direct teaching 7 times! He reminds, he declares, and he warns them. He did it publicly and personally. He knew that without sound doctrine, the spiritual life of the church would quickly dissipate like steam. Therefore, we see how diligently Paul taught them, giving them a solid foundation on which the church could grow further if they continued in this teaching.
But for this, they must also teach and not only, they must protect people from wolves who come from within that will teach false doctrine. A church without a teacher is open to all winds of doctrine, the cunning of men.
3. Biblical discipleship requires consistency
20.18 “From the first day … whole time”
20.31 “For three years, day and night … taught”
Here we clearly see how much Paul devoted to himself to regularly and persistently teach people the Word of God. Consistency in the Word and doctrine is an indispensable quality of a faithful elder and faithful Christian. This means day after day he will not stop following the Scriptures and teaching others.
If we follow the whims of man, if we only study from time to time, we cannot be faithful to Christ. Like any serious work, faithfulness in teaching requires constancy from us and will not prove effective if we are constantly starting, stopping, changing.
[1Ti 4:16 NIV] 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
4. Biblical discipleship requires hard work
20.19 “Working for the Lord”
Have you noticed that the trend in media is toward shorter clips and superficial content. People are mainly interested in watching a 15 second clips on tik tok of someone scaring their girlfriend or pranking a stranger. Short, provocative, content will always be more attractive but it will never produce beneficial results.
When it comes to discipleship there are thousands of provocative, entertaining, spiritual clips, and gimmicks that will never produce spiritual maturity. Paul warns Timothy of the fables, the philosophies of man. These false teachings and sometimes simply superficial teachings will attract a crowd but they won’t cultivate christian maturity.
But real discipleship is hard work! Real discipleship is 80% unseen.
If you see a Christian who has been faithful to Christ for many years, who shines with God’s love, and who not only knows Scripture, but lives by it, you see only a small tip of the iceberg. He is deep because he has spent hundreds, not a thousand hours alone with God and his Word.
[2Ti 2:15-16 NIV] 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 16 Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.
5. Biblical discipleship requires humility
20.19 “With great humility”
Humility is the soft quality of the soil of my heart before God. It is a heart tilled by the plow of true repentance.
- Without humility, the Word itself does not penetrate into my heart.
- Without humility, I do not see how this teaching touches me and convicts me.
- Without humility, my attempts to teach others will be rejected when they see that this teaching has not yet touched my heart.
[1Ti 6:3-4 NIV] 3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions
Humility is necessary because true discipleship requires me to sacrifice my time and my energy for another. Discipleship ministries is about investing your life into another with the knowledge that you may get no personal benefits from all your work. That takes humility! Discipleship requires humility because without it I will not point the other person to Christ but rather to my own success. Discipleship requires humility because without it Christ’ love and character can not shine through me. Discipleship requires humility when I realize that I have no power to change the life of the person I am discipling.
A prideful person can not be successful in discipleship ministries because he will eventually find it exhausting, pointless, and that it doesn’t help him reach his personal desires.
6. Biblical discipleship requires patience
19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.
31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
Patience is imperative for Discipleship! Patience tells us there will be bumps in the road and we shouldn’t give up too soon. Patience testifies to our future hope in God’s power to save fully. Patience is a good example to the person we are discipling. We see this quality clearly in Paul. Wherever he was, regardless of the conditions around him, he always preached God’s Word and His kingdom.
In fact, our faithfulness is always tested against a backdrop of difficulty and temptation. Being faithful to Christ in clear and good weather says nothing about our faith and the strength of our teaching. In the cave, where there are roaring lions, there we will see the state of our faith.
7. Biblical discipleship requires attentiveness
20.28 Keep watch over yourselves and the flock
20.29 savage wolves will come in
20.31 So be on your guard
Satan often attacks the flock when we sleep.
Bible discipleship implies that there will be attacks, and we must always be prepared. When we have regular meetings and accountability, it helps us a lot to stay awake.
Conclusion
Discipleship is extremely important to every member of the church and especially important to the elders of the church.
For this there must be time together, teaching publicly and personally, There must be constancy, there must be work, there must be humility.
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